Railway 'Magneto' telephone
About this object
Magneto telephones, also known as ‘P’ class phones, were a vital communication connection between operators in other signal boxes, railway stations, or railway telephone exchanges. These devices were manually hand-cranked, which when engaged, the magnetic generators in the units produced alternate currents moving between locations. Operators would be alerted to incoming calls by the ring bells on the front of the units. Also seen on the front of the magneto telephone units is the ‘code ring’ button, used to make outward calls. The codes used to contact other operators, stations and signal boxes were often displayed on telephone circuit cards. An example of which is in the Morpeth Museum railway collection, M2022.041.
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